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Chikkulla

Agrahara (village granted to Brahmins) in the former Tuni division of Godavari district, later East Godavari. A copper-plate grant of the Vishnukundin king Vikramendravarman II was dug up from a tank here in the 1880s.

Chikkulla is known to history for a single find. F. Kielhorn in 1897 quoted a note by J. Ramayya, a Treasury Deputy Collector, about it.1 According to the note, Pindi Nammayya found a set of copper plates about ten years earlier.1 He came from Upperagudem, a hamlet of Amalapuram in the Golgonda taluk of Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam) district.1 He was digging earth at the Atikavani tank “in the Chikkulla agrahara of the Tuni division of the Godavari district”.1

The find

Nammayya’s wife offered the plates for sale early in 1895.2 The village accountant (karanam) secured them and passed them through the Collector of Vizagapatam to the epigraphist E. Hultzsch.2 Kielhorn published them in Epigraphia Indica IV.2

They proved to be a grant of the Vishnukundin king Vikramendravarman II, issued from Lendulura in his 10th regnal year.2 It gave a village on the Krishna to a temple of Shiva (see Chikkulla plates of Vikramendravarman II).2

The village granted lay far to the south, near the Krishna.23 Ramayya identified the king’s residence, Lendulura, with Dendaluru near Eluru (then Ellore).23

Setting

The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 describes the Tuni division, in the north-east corner of the district.4 It was hilly and sparsely populated, with little irrigated land.4 It contained the Kottam or Tuni zamindari (landholder’s) estate and some villages of the Pithapuram estate.45 Tuni town was known for weaving and oil-pressing.45

The gazetteer’s list of notable villages in the division does not mention Chikkulla.4

Footnotes

  1. F. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates of Vikramendravarman II”, Epigraphia Indica IV (1897), p. 193 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates” (1897), p. 194 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Kielhorn, “Chikkulla Plates” (1897), p. 195 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari (1907), pp. 255–256 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 257 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

Photos

People

Vikramendravarman II (Vishnukundin)

c. 655–670 CE

Vishnukundin king, eldest son of Indravarman, who issued the Chikkulla plates from Lendulura (Denduluru near Vengi) in his 10th year, giving a village on the Krishna to a Shiva temple. The plates say he took up the government as a child. Some scholars identify him with the Vikramahendra of the Polamuru plates, the grandfather of the last known Vishnukundin king; D. C. Sircar did not. Sircar dated him about 655–670, and the scheme printed by Sewell in 1932 about 496–521.

Inscriptions

Chikkulla plates of Vikramendravarman II

A Vishnukundin copper-plate grant, issued from Lendulura in the king's 10th regnal year, giving the village of Regonram near the Krishna to a Shiva temple. It was found in a tank at Chikkulla near Tuni, and F. Kielhorn edited it in 1897. Its date depends on the disputed Vishnukundin chronology.

References

Sources (2)
  1. F. Kielhorn (articles); E. Hultzsch (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV (1896–97) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1897, pp. 193–195. F. Kielhorn, Chikkulla plates of Vikramendravarman II (No. 25). [Public domain]
  2. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 255, 257. [Public domain]

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